Sam Watt is from Glasgow, where he once upon a time studied philosophy. He is now based in Berlin, where he has been involved in various social and cultural projects and is also, despite some vague vegetarianism, often spotted “beating a dead goat” in the city’s music venues.
Soon, on the 18th September, all adult residents of Scotland will be offered a rare opportunity. They will be asked to cast a simple yes/no vote on whether or not Scotland should break from the United Kingdom. As a Scottish expat in Berlin, I have been watching keenly, but having left Scotland, I feel a certain sense of detachment from it all. (More…)
When the opportunity of getting involved in the Never Again for Anyone project first came up, I had to consider seriously whether it made sense for me to take part or not. After all, the project is focused on the inherited traumatic effects experienced by third generation survivors, the grandchildren of the Holocaust, of which I am not one. (More…)
The broad European response to the economic downturn of the last few years has been various programmes of economic austerity: reductions of national expenditure through intense budget cuts. History shows that this is a risky tactic. Policies like this played an important role in aiding the Nazis’ rise to power at the end of the Weimar Republic. (More…)
If we are to maintain our vigilance in the face of the possibility of the return of fascism, it is important to understand some of the structural causes that facilitated its and allowed it to gain such a hold of the populations in continental Europe. One of these is philosophical, and another is simply how it spreads as an ideology. (More…)
One of the important tasks of the on-going project of Never Again for Anyone, including our own to take place in Berlin during the Holocaust’s 70th anniversary, is to highlight the danger of a resurgence of violent far-right activity in Europe. As a German resident, I think the most notable example in recent times is undoubtedly the case of the National Socialist Underground (NSU). (More…)